The Last Run
by NewsieKicks
Summary: So what exactly happened that two of the best drivers in Hazzard ended up getting caught on a shine run? The events leading up to Bo & Luke's arrest & eventual parole. Still in the build up to the arrest, but I'm working on getting there.
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer : **I don't own them. Not trying to make any money out of this fiction. So please don't sue me.

**The Last Run**

**Summary **: This is the story of what exactly happened between Luke returning from the war & Bo graduating from high school and the start of the tv show.

The sun wasn't even up yet when Luke Duke's feet hit the cold hardwood floor; heck the sun wasn't even going think about coming up for another couple of hours. Luke had some time and his stomach told him he needed some food. Being careful not to wake his cousin or anyone else in the family for that matter, it was way too early for even farmers to be up, Luke made his way into the kitchen.

Entering the kitchen, a smile spread across his face as he saw the playing cards still scattered out on the kitchen table where they had left them last night. It had been a quite night, and the Dukes don't see many of them. Bo had went out on a date and as such was out late with the General. It being a week night, Luke had to work late helping Uncle Jesse finish up an order for the weekend. And while Luke was sure the gathering Bo went to was filled with great music and dancing, he was just feeling like a night in.

After helping Daisy with cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, Daisy and Luke had convinced Uncle Jesse to play them in a game of rummy. Well one game quickly turned into two, which turned into three before Luke and Daisy had experienced enough losing for one night. Don't you know it, Uncle Jesse, the old goat, had won every single game by at least a hundred points.

Well a quite night at the Duke farm generally makes for an early bed time, and the pain in his stomach told him he had been foolish not to eat a little something right before bed. Turning on the oven, Luke sliced of a piece of the bread Daisy had baked last weekend and slid it in the oven to warm. By the time he fixed himself a tall glass of water, Luke was removing his bread from the oven. He didn't really want to toast it, just to get it warm; the way it was when Daisy baked it fresh on Sundays. Now some of you out there might be wondering why Luke didn't bother with any butter. Well that there is homemade bread and homemade bread is practically half butter already. It is also extremely crumbly, which explains why Luke took it out on the porch to eat it.

Standing out on porch in the early morning hours, Luke carefully stood on the edge eating his slice of bread. He knew well what Uncle Jesse would do if he found him eating before the livestock. Luke chuckled & shook his head at the memory of that day nearly a year ago when he had just returned from the war. . . .

_It was spring, Bo was finishing up high school – set to graduate in about 2 weeks. It had been a morning similar to this one. Luke had woken up hungry from not eating anything hours before going to bed the night before. Without thinking, Luke made a bee line for the kitchen; he was up with plenty of time to eat a little something before starting his morning chores and he was hungry._

_Luke was laying a piece of toast on his plate and next to his scrambled eggs, when Uncle Jesse walked into the kitchen._

_"Luke you up early. Fixing breakfast. Finished with your morning chores." Jesse wasn't a stupid man he had picked his words carefully. At the mention of morning chores, Luke knew he had screwed up. The most basic rule of living on a farm: the animals always got taken care of first. On a farm where they are your livelihood, where they can make the difference whether you make it through the winter comfortably with plenty of food, or just barely getting by with having to ration out the portions so you can make it to spring. Bottom line was that the animals got feed first. Having lived on the Duke farm for almost his entire life, Luke knew this and Uncle Jesse knew Luke had momentarily forgotten it. "Get and don't come back in 'till your finished!" Jesse commanded pointing at the door._

_"Yes, sir." Luke replied already on his way out the door with head bowed._

_A little time later Bo joined Luke out in the barn to help change out the straw in the horse stalls. "You finish feeding the rabbits?" Bo asked as he ran down his mental checklist making sure everything was finished._

_"Yeah. Did you take care of milking the cows?" Luke seeing the end of the morning chores, was doing the same thing as Bo. _

_"Yeah. Uncle Jesse got the eggs and feed the chickens. Anything else that needs to be done this morning, Luke?" _

_As if on cue, Luke's stomach rumbled. "Eat. We will need to change the straw in the cow stalls tonight, but I think we are done for the morning. Let's go get some breakfast before you head off to school and I go plow the hay field."_

_Walking into the kitchen, Bo and Luke were greeted with the smell of fried bacon, eggs, biscuits, red-eye gravy, and coffee. Uncle Jesse and Daisy were already seated at the table just waiting on the boys. Meals were always an enjoyable experience in the Duke house filled with friendly banter and talk of what the day would (or did) entail. Nothing was mentioned about Luke's mishap earlier; it was like it had never occurred. Bo caught the bus, Daisy left for work at the Boar's Nest, and Uncle Jesse had some mending work he needed to do on the barn, and Luke headed out to plow the hay field. _

_It wasn't until mid-day that Luke realized that even though nothing was mentioned at the breakfast table, Uncle Jesse had not forgotten. You see when lunch time came all Luke had in his brown paper sack was some bread and a Mason jar of water. Taking a deep breath and smiling a little bit, Luke couldn't help but think 'Boy does Uncle Jesse know how to drive a point home.'_

Well it had worked, since that day Luke never forgot to finish his morning chores before coming inside to fix or eat breakfast. Although there still were times like this morning when he needed just a little something to get him through his morning chores and while he knew Uncle Jesse would not get upset at him having a piece of toast before starting work, it was more a principle sort of thing now.

Dusting off his hands, Luke headed to the barn. Based on the position of the moon, Luke figured there was about an hour and a half before day break. Meaning the rest of the family would be up within the half hour and if Luke could get his chores finished, he could be fixing breakfast just as the other Dukes finish up their chores.


	2. Sugar & Cornmeal

**A/N : **Okay so this is my first fan fiction and I finally understand why you guys like reviews so much. So please let me know what you  
think: what's good, what's bad, what would you like to see happen, is it moving too slow, am I okay with dialog, etc. I'm pulling  
a lot from the North Carolina moonshine culture; these are the stories I was raised on as a kid.

---------------

"Hey, Luke, did you tell the Gentrys about the cook-out tonight?"

Breakfast was drawing to a close. Daisy, Jesse, Luke and Bo were just sitting around the table enjoying each other's company before getting a start on the day.

"Bo, after the last date you had with LeeAnne," Luke gave his cousin an inquisitive look wondering if he really was stupid, "what do you think?"

"Yeah," pausing briefly to enjoy the memory, "we should still invite them though. That ain't no reason to be rude and heck half of Hazzard will be here tonight."

It was nearing the end of the planting season; the end of hard long hours out in the fields getting the ground ready for seed and then planting it. True, planting was not nearly as much of a chore as harvesting, but at least at harvesting your neighbors all chipped in and helped out. So to mark the end of the beginning, the Dukes were hosting a BBQ cook-out.

"Now you two just stop your bickering. Of course we invited the Gentrys tonight, as well as the rest of Hazzard – even those who aren't farmers."

Sighing loudly, Bo couldn't help but say the first thing he thought at the words 'those who aren't farmers' "Uncle Jesse, you didn't invited Rosco & Boss Hogg did ya?" Already knowing the answer, disbelief saturated Bo's voice.

"Of course we did; we's just being good neighbors."

"But Uncle Jesse, you know there just going to come up here and try to arrest me and Luke for something we didn't do, don't ya?"

You see things in Hazzard didn't change much once the boys were put on parole. In fact things might have been worse for the boys before the end of their shine days. Boss knew that Jesse made the finest shine in the three counties and that he had orders backed up for months, but the people were willing to wait. As you've probably figured out, this took business away from Boss and boy did it make him angry. So he had Rosco hassle the Duke boys for any little thing hoping to make it so difficult for them to exist, let alone run shine, that production would at least slow down. He had sent anonymous tips to the revenuers telling them where to find any number of Jesse's stills, even blow up a few himself, and once had Rosco replace an order of Jesse's finest with pure country stream water. Nothing had worked so far, but that didn't stop Rosco from chasing the boys & giving them a ticket every chance he got.

"Bo, they's our neighbors," his voice raising gradually, "and just cause they don't act neighborly to us, does not mean that we have to bring ourselves down to their level."

"Yes, sir" eyes were suddenly focused on the table and flat, defeated voices were all that could be heard from both Bo and Luke.

"Now don't you boys got some mending to do on old man Red's fence." Shock and awe were in the boys eyes as they looked up from the table. You could tell they hadn't mentioned it and had not intend for Jesse to find out about their latest chase with the Hazzard police. "Yes I heard about your run in with Rosco yesterday. And just because you ran him off the road, don't mean that it weren't your fought. Red needs that field for his cows and yesterday he had a time yesterday rounding them up from where you two boys were off gallivanting around."

"Looks like we got more work to do today thanks to your driving." Luke mouthed off to Bo. Knowing that mouthing off to anyone else would just cause more trouble. Even if he also knew his frustration was a little misdirected.

"Well he was after both of us," came Bo's retort.

Seeing that the two were going to go on like this for quite sometime about one thing or the other, Jesse decided it was best to put a stop to it and get them on their way. "Boys. I told Red you would be there right after breakfast. So git and after your finished there don't forget to go to the store for supplies."

"Yes, sir" Luke gathered up his & Bo's plates, while Bo took care of the glasses. Quickly discarding the dishes into the sink, both boys left the farm for another farm several miles away.

---------------

Now when Uncle Jesse said that Bo & Luke needed to pick up supplies that meant two things – one they needed feed and fertilizer for the family farm, or two they needed sugar & corn meal for the other family business. Since they had enough feed and fertilizer to get them through the summer, that only left sugar & corn meal. In Jesse's truck, the bickering that had started with talk about the Gentrys at breakfast was still going strong as ever.

"That fence looks as good as the day it was first built. I would say our job here is done." Bo climbed behind the wheel and cranked the engine.

"Yep. Another fine fix for the fine mess that your driving managed to get us into to," Luke put special emphasis on the your and clanged his door shut.

"Yeah, but it sure was fun watching old Rosco run right into that fence." Bo made a hand gesture to simulate Rosco's car running off the road. Luke couldn't help but to laugh his cousin's amusement and at the memory of Rosco crashing into the fence. "And we did get away, thanks to my driving."

"And took half the day working on mending a fence when we could have been fishing." Luke couldn't let Bo get too proud of the fact that he had gotten them away from Rosco. "Oh boy. Don't look now cus, we got company."

"Rosco." Bo smiled as he looked in his mirrors and saw the police car trailing them, "When will he ever learn?"

"Probably never, but you can't afford another speeding ticket at the moment and I've already got enough citations to wallpaper our room." Why did it always seem like Rosco & Boss had them over a barrel? "Think you can lose him Bo?"

Laughing with amusement, a twinkle came to Bo's eye as he responded with a definite "sure."

Grim faced, Luke made sure to add, "Good then do it. But Bo don't break anything this time. We ain't got time to fix another fence."

"I'll do what I can cousin." Bo's foot went to the floor of the old pick-up and the chase was on.

"Luke, he's sticking to me like molasses on honey." Puzzlement wove itself through Bo's words & onto his face as he swung Jesse's truck around a sharp curve making sure to accelerate through the curve to get as much speed as possible without running off the road.

"Yeah, those driving lessons Rosco's been taken must be paying off." Luke was more than a little puzzled at the driving skill Rosco was showing today. It was far better then what they had seen on Rosco's best days. "Bo, does Haggins still have that barn out by the old sawmill?"

"I believe so, why?"

"Well he ain't used it in years. If you can shake Rosco in this next curve and put some distance between us, I think we might be able to . . ." Luke was cut off as Bo caught up to his line of reasoning.

"Hide out in the old barn. Say no more cousin, one lost Rosco coming up."

---------------

"Man Luke that was great. To see Rosco just go flying past us like that." Bo opened the door to the Boar's Nest for his cousin. "Well would you look at that."

"Huh." Luke turned around just in time to see Rosco's patrol car pull into the dirt parking lot, but it wasn't Rosco behind the wheel. "No wonder you had such a hard time losing Rosco Bo, that ain't Rosco."

Ignoring his cousin, Bo was already making his way over to Rosco's car, "Hey Enos. You eating lunch or here on business?"

"Hey fellas, I hope you didn't mind that chase earlier. I just love the practice of racing against you two." Enos was still high on the chase from earlier and it took awhile for Bo's question to sink in. "Well shucks Bo, it is time for lunch isn't. Hey I'll join ya fellas in a minute but first I have to report to Boss Hogg and give Rosco his car back."

"Okay buddy, we'll save ya a seat." Luke clapped both of them on the back, ushering them inside and toward a cold beer and lunch.

"See ya in a bit, Enos," Bo wave slightly as he and Luke headed toward the bar and Enos headed toward the backroom.

"Hey Daisy. What can you get for us?"

"Stale peanuts and some watered down beer."

"That'll do. Oh and bring a glass of milk for Enos."

"Okay sugar. You two get finished fixing that fence?"

"Finally. Hey you need anything from the store? We're heading into town to get some supplies after lunch."

"Did I hear you were going to buy supplies?." L.B. Davenport, Billy Haggins, and Bishop Creed walked through the door. "Now what kinda supplies would these be? The kind that put you to work early in the morning or the kind that keep you at work late into the night?"

"Well let's just say it's the kind that will put money in our wallets."

"In that case, can I go with you two? I'm running low on the main ingredients and was planning to head to the store later this week. This way it will be done and then I can go help you guys prepare that pig for tonight."

"Sounds good, Billy. You two need supplies too?"

"Billy will get it for me." Bishop nodded to Billy in an unspoken communication. "I've actually got to get back to the tree off of highway 18. I'm suppose to be watching for paying customers. I was just giving these two bums a ride here; so I'll see you guys tonight at the Duke farm."

For those of you who don't know, Bishop is rushing off to bird dog a tree that sits off one of the main roads through Hazzard. Thirsty travelers can stop at this tree put some money in old knot hole, take a stroll through the nearby woods, and when they get back a cold drink will await them. The tree changes every so often to make it harder for the revenuers, but the concept is always the same. Now that's making good use of those country smarts.

"We are in the truck."

"Oh now you tell us. After our ride just left. Well you're lucky we don't mind riding in the back."

"Oh yeah. I'm the lucky one." Luke just rolled his eyes. "Enos! Over here, we already got ya some milk." Enos had just emerged from the backroom of the Boar's Nest and was making his way over to the bar to sit with the Duke boys.

"Everything okay buddy?"

"Yeah. I just brought Sheriff Rosco's car back to him. Cooter just got it fixed from where he went into old man Red's cow pasture the other day."

L.B. was walking back into the Boar's Nest. He had left to check out the deer someone had in the back of their truck. "Wow that sure is a huge buck. You should go check it out." Not really referring to anyone in particular but just making small talk. Then he noticed Enos. "Enos I didn't see your car out front, but I did just see Rosco go flying outta here like someone had set him on fire, if you know what I mean."

"Oh Enos, Luke and me will give you a ride."

"You are coming over tonight aren't ya?"

"Sure am. Wouldn't miss Uncle Jesse's cooking for anything in the world. Except maybe you Daisy."

"Well we got to get some supplies and then why don't you just come over the farm with us and help use start cooking the pig? That's what the rest of these jokers are planning on doing."

"You sure fellas? Well gee, I'd like that quite a bit. But I'm still on duty."

"Well did Boss or Rosco tell you anything that you need to be doing?" Bo asked.

"And Rosco did take off leaving you without a way back into town." Luke pointed out, "So they way I see it, they've just given you the day off. Can't write many speeding tickets without a car."

"Well when you put it that way Luke, let's go."

On the way out, Bo, L.B., and Billy pulled Luke to the side and Bo whispered, "Luke you do know what we are buying at the supply store right."

"Sure do cousin." A big old smile spread wide across his face already anticipating the event that had yet taken place. "This should be interesting."

Wouldn't you know it when trouble isn't finding them Dukes, the Dukes go out looking for it. What do you think old Enos will have to say when they load that pick-up truck full of sugar & corn mill?

---------------

With Enos in the middle and L.B & Billy on the back, Jesse's white pick-up truck pulled up right next to the loading dock of the general store. Luke jumped out first, "Come on Enos you can help us get the supplies in the truck."

"Hey fellas, we need the usual amount," Bo informed the workers standing around as Luke went inside to put the order on the Duke tab.

Making a human chain, the five friends quickly began filling the truck with five pound bags of sugar and corn meal. With each bag Enos eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger and his actions were a little more nervous. Bo & Luke were quite amused by this and both were wearing huge grins by the time the order had been filled and everyone was climbing back into the truck.

Once inside the truck, Enos had to say something, "Now boys, you know I'm on duty."

"Yeah, all we did was buy some sugar and corn meal. Is that a crime?"

"Well no, but there ain't but one reason you would buy that much sugar, Luke."

"Oh Enos you know how Daisy likes to make sweet tea and corn bread. We can never keep enough of this stuff around the farm."

Enos broke into one of those nervous little giggles that always follows any mention of Daisy. "Yeah she does make good sweet tea & corn bread, Luke. Did she make any for tonight?"

"What do you think we needed the supplies for good ole buddy?"


	3. Time to Move

_So I'm still around. Sorry for the long wait on updating; its been crazy at the school house. Thanks for all the reviews. As always keep them coming and feel free to give me direction on where you would like to see this thing go._

* * *

Magnificent hues of oranges, reds, and purples streaked across the sky. By the looks of the trees with the backdrop of the old farm house, the crop fields and with the mountains off in the distance, one might even believe it to be a typical peaceful country evening where people relax drinking sweet ice tea, playing music, and singing hymns outdoors. That's by the look of things, but by the sound of things, well . . . you would get quite a different impression. Everyone in Hazzard had turned out for the pig-pickin' and many of them had stayed well after supper time. Many of these people had brought instruments of their own for the evening entertainment and thus the whole band of guitars, fiddles, banjos, and even a few mandolins playing music down by the barn. 

Luke was playing guitar with the band of rabble off to the side. Bo was out on the dance floor with Rebecca Sue. Daisy was standing off to the side enjoying a conversation she was having with Enos, and well Uncle Jesse, he was around somewhere talking shop (or one kind or another) with whomever he ran into.

With all the instruments playing the Cannonball Walsh, no one, except those around him, even heard it when Luke's fingers slipped on a cord and stopped playing all together. A hand clapped down hard on his shoulder. Looking around to see who had commanded his attention away from the merriment of the evening, Luke saw the serious face of Bishop. Bishop who was suppose to be making the run for the order Luke and Jesse had put out last night. Luke got a sinking feeling in his gut and prayed a silent prayer that this was not going to be the end of the evening. Bishop nodded toward the house and took off.

Luke knew that something had gone wrong with run by the deep crease bored into Bishop's brow. And this weighted heavily on his mind as he finished out the song with the other players. At then of the Cannonball Walsh, Luke stood up, "I'm going to get some water fellas. Don't lose my seat, I'll be right back."

Luke set the guitar down beside his chair, waved, and turned toward the house to calls of "sure you will," "you'll have to tell us about it tomorrow," "yeah make sure you get her number," and others of the like. Slowly making his way back up toward the farm house and the seriousness that awaited him there, Luke couldn't help but smile at what his friends thought was the real reason for his leaving the music, dancing, warmth of the bon-fire, and cheerful, careless people

Approaching the porch, Luke found Bishop sitting on the porch swing. He opted to take a seat on the edge leaning up against one of the support beams; this allowed him to look directly at Bishop as they spoke. Instead of speaking, Luke just waited; Bishop would tell him what happened when he had gathered his thoughts.

Sighing deeply and looking out into the surrounding darkness Bishop started, "Luke, we got to find a new place." Shifting his eyes to rest on Luke's he continued, "the swamp is not working for us at the moment. It's too dangerous. I fear people will find it any day now."

It was true. They had been having trouble getting in and out of the still located in the Hazzard swamp for weeks now. Luke had already been discussing moving the operation with Uncle Jesse and Bo. It just seemed like the timeline might have to be moved up a bit. While mentally acknowledging that Bishop spoke the truth, Luke remained silent allowing him to completely finish.

"Long story short, I had a tail coming out of the swamp. I must have loaded the car down with too much shine, because I couldn't get the speed that I needed to out run them. I knew that if I could just make it to the mountain then with the added weight I would just sail down the mountain and there would be no way for them catch up. But the turn off to go down Tuker Mountain was at least 15 miles away and there was no way I could out run the car especially after it started to give chase." Bishop's mind was back in the car feeling the sweat drip down his back, his white knuckles gripping the steering wheel and his foot firmly planted on the car floorboard with nothing between it except the gas pedal. His goal had been to get to the mountain at whatever cost, but then they started shooting. He remembered saying a silent pray before cutting the wheel to the left causing him to veer over into the oncoming traffic lane then just as quickly he cut the wheel hard to the right. His car had ended up perpendicular with the road with the driver side door on the opposite side of the approaching car. Bishop hurled out of the door and made a bee line for the wooded area along the side of the road. Being careful to stay off of main roads, Bishop had made his way slowly back to the Duke farm. Taking a deep breath to dismiss the anxiety from earlier, Bishop concluded his story with the hardest of the news, "I lost the car . . . and the shine."

Luke's eyes shot up. His mind raced through his memory, whose car had Bishop been driving. Were they smart enough not to have put it in anybody's name? As fear seized him, his memory locked up and just wouldn't allow Luke access to that information. Taking a deep breath, Luke made himself calm down. "What car did you make the run in tonight?"

With deep regret and seriousness in his voice, Bishop answered Luke's question with perhaps the worst news of the night. "The black Ford . . . your black Ford."

* * *

_I know this part isn't complete, but I wrote it earlier this week, proofed it today and wanted to post it for you guys. I'll get the rest of this section up by next week (hopefully!). RR - let me know what you think._

_Also I am aware the BBQ Pig-Pickin' is a North Carolina thing, but hey I'm a Carolina girl. Actually Carolina BBQ is really only an Eastern NC thing, but since moving from the west to the east I have been converted. And since this story is a way for me to celebrate my heriatage and retell some of the stories from my family's past, the Dukes are having a pig-pickin' in GA.  
_


End file.
